merge two files into one file use awk

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi, guys. I have one question:

I have two files: passwd and shadow (the number of records in these files are not equal)the contents of them are below:

passwd:

**************
ftp:x:24:24:
sshd:x:71:65:
uucp:x:10:14:
brownj:x:5005:1000:
sherrys: x :5006:1000:
...
*************

passwd:
**************
...
ftp::13503::
uucp::13503::
brownj:ASDFASERE#$#s:0:0
sherrys:GAS3434f#$#$@4:0:0
...
*****************

I want to merge them into a file or a variable called "join", which should have the following contents:
***************
...
ftp:24:*
uucp:10:*
brownj:5005:ASDFASERE#$#s
sherrys:5006:GAS3434f#$#$@4
...
***********************

How can I do this?

Thank you very much for your time in advance

-Keyang

2 
 join -t: -o 1.1,1.3,2.2 passwd shadow
3

Hi, fpmurphy.

Your code works, but it has a problem in my case, it always gives me 2 messages:

join: File 1 is not in sorted order
join: File 2 is not in sorted order

Then I user sort command on both of them to get two new files, but still get these messages, do you know what might cause this problem?

Thank you very much for your time in advance

-Keyang